Tea Party Loses Primaries, But the GOP is Still Extreme

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This week multiple states had primaries, allowing them to finally choose (or in some cases, just winnow down) new party nominees for the 2014 general election. What has really happened, though, is that the general public has declared that they just aren’t that into extremist, far right candidates anymore.

Two big contested Republican nominations for the Senate have been somewhat decided, in Kentucky and in Georgia. Despite a surge of enthusiasm for a far right Tea Party challenger, Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell will still be his party’s nominee, winning a sizable 24 point victory over his challenger Matt Bevin. That scenario echoed across the country as Georgia, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Idaho all saw their “establishment” candidates win in primaries. Some of those establishment candidates are a little more vulnerable than others, however, such as Oregon’s new GOP Senate nominee Monica Wehby, accused of stalking and campaign mismanagement.

Despite the ballots being cast and counted, not everything is completely settled, though. A Georgia Republican primary will now go into a runoff between the top two candidates since no GOP candidate took a full 50 percent of the vote. Those runoff candidates will be David Perdue and Rep. Jack Kingston; Paul Broun, who was backed by the extreme “no exceptions” Georgia Right to Life group did not make the top two and, ironically, neither did Karen Handel, who was backed by the Susan B. Anthony List and conservative commentator Erick Erickson, and whose campaign appeared to be the impetus for a new anti-abortion political group in the state, which took over the state’s National Right to Life affiliation. Kingston already has made his hatred of abortion — and school lunches — very well known, even if he isn’t willing to force rape victims to give birth like Broun was. Kingston and Perdue will have a run off in July.

Now that the dust is mostly settled, abortion is likely to become a significant talking point in many of the Senate battles across the country, especially in races where the Republican has made it explicit that he or she is in favor of a “moment of conception, no exceptions” all out abortion ban. Both sides are likely to see this as a winning issue now, thanks to two very different readings of the same poll out of Politico. According to Politico, their poll says, “54 percent [of respondents] say they support the right to an abortion either with no restrictions (19 percent) or some restrictions (35 percent). Forty-five percent said there should be either a near-total abortion ban with some exceptions (34 percent) or a total ban on the procedure (11 percent).”

Abortion opponents say this is Politico “spinning” the numbers and that in reality, 80 percent support pro-life beliefs because they support abortion restrictions. But those “some restrictions” according to the internal questioning Newsbusters posted, are about as minimal as you can get: just parental notification and a ban on late term abortions. How likely are those people to support a candidate who says absolutely no abortions ever, even in cases of sexual assault or parental health?

We’re already watching this start to play out in up for grabs states across the country. In Montana, Democratic incumbent Sen. John Walsh has a new ad out attacking his GOP challenger over his no exceptions abortion position, which would forbid rape victims from being able to end a pregnancy legally. Those types of ad buys are likely to hit even more airwaves in more states now that the nominees have been identified and it’s time to get into the general election fray.

Just six months until November, and plenty of time for a Republican to declare a pregnancy from rape a gift from God or make another “legitimate rape” faux pas. The question at this point seems to just be which candidate will do it first.

Let nature take her course here. McConnell had to win so he can get properly bitch-slapped upside the head in November! I can't wait! This is going to be one very interesting campaign for both sides. May Allison follow the path she's being given and never stop until that prize is in her hand!

The people that support the Tea Party are an increasingly shrinking percentage of the national electorate. They CAN win elections, if there are low turnouts (such as in midterms).

The G.O.P. knows this. But while they are a fairly small percentage, they are also some of the most vocal political people in the U.S. But the G.O.P. can't win without them. And, by cozying up to them, the Republican Party has driven moderates away. While they might like to win back Independents and some of the more Conservatives Democrats, they will never do that in large numbers as long as they let the fox run the hen house.

So they can cut off the tea party now and probably lose a couple election cycles. Or they can keep the Tea Party and continue to drive away "middle of the road" people.

Interesting timing in that I went to a stage performance of "inherit the Wind" last night. "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

The ice shelf in Antarctica is now unstoppably sliding into the ocean, and is estimated to raise ocean levels by ten feet in fifty to 100 years. Meanwhile, North Carolina is passing legislation as to what science is admissible, and what time frames can be used in planning, so their Republican friends can still sell their ocean-front "soon to be ocean" property.

The Fundamentalists focus on Genesis and Revelations, and all the hellfire and damnation, cruelty, torture, hideous death and destruction of the old tribal history book of the ancient Jews - including "God sanctioned" burning and stoning pregnant women to death, while completely ignoring the message of compassion and love that was in the true books of the Christian scriptures.

The Roman despots who so managed the re-construction of what has been handed down as "The Bible" would be very proud of the extent to which their modifications, exclusions, and additions have served the rich and powerful through all these centuries - to keep the foolish fearful and enslaved, and focused on all the distractions this provides - even while they are mercilessly cheated and impoverished by these same rich and powerful.